ON LOVE; PART DCCCXXI
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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FIRST IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS: “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).
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WHAT THEN IS LOVE? In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men. While this IS from an older definition of Charity, which IS rendered in the King James Bible from the same Greek word agape which IS generally rendered as Love, we should amend our own definition here to include the idea that in the reality of Love a man will accord to ALL men ALL things that he would accord to himself and to say that Love IS our thoughts and attitude of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our One God
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PLUS THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12)
When the Master’s words from our current selection of sayings from the sixteenth chapter of John’s Gospel which we repeat again below ARE seen in a more spiritual light, they DO show us the depth of the idea that Jesus IS trying to show to His apostles. His words ARE NOT ONLY about His dying and His resurrection and this we should be able to see in the way that His words seem almost contradictory to His previous words as we discussed in the last essay. We should remember here that His Eleven DO NOT understand these words, that they ARE confused by them in much the same way as they are perplexed by ALL of His words that show the Truth of the Presence of God in His unique parabolic language. And we should remember that this IS much the same, albeit on a higher level, as the way that the Master offers parables to those who DO NOT yet see His words with the spiritual understanding that IS required to see beyond His stories, many of which ARE NOT understood yet today. Additionally, we should try to see the deeper reality of ALL of His words regardless of whether the Master calls them parables and proverbs or just offers His words as a teaching to the people.
As we discussed in the last essay, there IS a reality in Jesus words that IS covered by parables which He Himself shows us in sayings such as that “spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them” (Matthew 13:34). Jesus reasoning here IS clear as we read as the Apostle Luke’s tells us that Jesus says “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see , and hearing they might not understand” (Luke 8:10) and here in this idea IS the dilemma that men face yet today. First we must understand that it IS NOT ONLY the story which IS a parable but that much of what Jesus tells us IS parabolic in nature save for the most straightforward sayings that He Truly wants men to accept and to understand. Second we should understand that most of what the Master tells His apostles and disciples IS also parabolic in nature; this we see in our current selection where we read “These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs:c but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father“. Finally we must try to see and to understand that while many men over the centuries, and yet today, have deemed themselves as disciples and as men who would understand the deeper meanings of His words, most of these men ARE yet carnal, they ARE yet the “natural man” who lacks the spiritual discernment of the man who Has the Truth of the Presence of God in his Life. In this we should try to see the powerful forces at play in the world of men; forces that the Apostle Paul calls vanity as He shows us that “the creature was made subject to vanity” (Romans 8:20), forces that we call the illusion and the glamour that cloud the minds of men and keep them in delusion.
While so many men have and DO believe that they have the Truth of His words, this very idea should be destroyed by the ALL too many approaches that such believing men have to His One Truth. In the firmness of conviction that IS covered by the thousands of individual denominations and sects that interpret and follow the One message, we should be able to clearly see the vanity, the illusion and the glamour, that obnubilates the reality of Jesus message and, when we add to this the anti Christian ways of men who have professed to have the Truth over the centuries, we should have a clearer picture that shows us that there ARE and have been very few who been able to lift themselves out of the world of the “natural man” and into the fullness of Paul’s words saying:
“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:11-14).
We find the difficulty of men and this IS their dilemma: that men believe themselves to have “the spirit which is of God” when they ARE yet focused upon the things of the world; that men believe that they have “the spirit which is of God” when they have NOT DONE what the Master Himself shows us as the way to having “the things that are freely given to us of God” in one’s Life. Men DO NOT see past their own deluded sense of things spiritual which has been passed down for centuries as the Truth of the message of God and of the Master. And there IS NO clearer place to find this Truth than in Jesus words that we have been repeating in every essay, words that should show us that the way to the these gifts, the way to this grace, IS the way to His Presence in one’s Life; words that can be so easily summed up in three….that we keep His words. We read His injunction again saying:
“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:21-24).
It IS in these words that we should see how that the Presence of God comes to the man who will keep His words and it IS here that we should see some of the most pointed words that the Master offers in True clarity. There IS NO parable here, there IS NO parabolic language and NO proverb….there IS ONLY the clarity that to attain the Presence of God in one’s Life, one must keep His words. And while the nature of the Holy Spirit IS offered in this same context of His Presence, one should be able to sense the more parabolic nature of Jesus’ words concerning this, to see that beneath ALL of His words IS the reality that to have the Presence of God IS to have “the spirit which is of God” and that in the reality of His words saying “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” IS the fullness of the Godhead as the Father and the Son. These CAN NOT be Truly separated as many doctrines portray and these CAN NOT be separated from the reality of the Holy Spirit….the “Spirit of Truth” either. When we can see the spiritual depth of His Presence in the Life of the disciple who keeps His words as the Eleven strive to DO, we can then see what even they themselves DO NOT understand as they ARE yet confused by the words from our selection: we can see that the seeing found in Jesus words that “ye shall see me, because I go to the Father” IS that Presence. We read again:
“A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come : but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs:c but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father” (John 16:16-25)
This idea of the Presence of God in one’s Life IS NOT the only reality that IS clearly expressed by the Master and yet remains unseen by so many who believe that they ARE among His disciples and who believe that they have the KEYS to the Kingdom of God. As we have been discussing, there IS NO real differentiation to be found in these ideas of being accounted worthy of the Kingdom and having the Presence of God in one’s Life; both ARE the reward that IS attained by the man who will keep His words. While the idea of reward IS denied by many who see ALL things spiritual as the free gift of God to the man who believes as doctrines instruct, the reality IS found in the quid pro quo that we find in Jesus words above….words that clearly show us the great reality that “If a man love me, he will keep my words” and that it IS this that brings His Presence. It IS this keeping His words that brings the Presence of the Father and the Son of which we read in Jesus saying “we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” to the man who CAN DO such things. We should try to see as well how that the Master clarifies His message in the negative saying that “He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings” and that there IS NO parable and NO proverb in these ideas.
While Paul’s words have given many the doctrinal ideas of the free gift, the realty of the apostle’s words should offer the more clarity as these are stated; we read “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:22-23). Here in these words that ARE obnubilated by the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world we have the simple Truth: it IS to the men who have “become servants to God” who will have “fruit unto holiness” and that True salvation IS ONLY the “the gift of God” to the man who has been “made free from sin“, the man whose focus IS upon the things of God….the man who is among the “servants to God“. In this IS the same reciprocal action that we see in Jesus’ words above. It IS perhaps men’s own carnal understanding that inhibits their ability to glimpse the Truth and see that this idea of gift, which IS rendered from the Greek word charisma, IS the reality of grace which IS rendered from the kindred word charis.
In these ideas we should try to see how that many things that ARE clearly stated by the Master and His apostles ARE confounded by the doctrines of men who seek to place themselves into God’s grace without first acknowledging the simplicity of His words. Here again we should see the greater realities that ARE expressed by way of the grace received by the man who keeps His words, that this grace IS ALL things that come from God and that such grace IS ALL things that ARE expressed by the Master as the result of the DOING of the man in accordance with the reality of His words. Again, these things ARE NOT hidden from view but ARE clearly stated as we see above in the reciprocal action, the reward, that comes to the man who “hath my commandments, and keepeth them“. This man has His Presence and, according to the Master’s words on the Kingdom of God we KNOW that this man who keeps His words also has the Kingdom which Jesus clearly shows us saying: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
While we have repeated this theme many times over the last several posts, there IS NO thing in His words that IS more important to the man who Truly seeks the Lord. And when we add the reality of discipleship, True discipleship, to these ideas, we can gain a greater understanding of the spiritual reality that ALL these ideas ARE the same…..that to have one IS to have them ALL. In the Master’s saying that “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” we have the same causative factor of keeping His words resulting in True discipleship which IS the deeper idea that we should take from the Greek word alethos which IS rendered as indeed and which the lexicon tells us means: truly, of a truth, in reality, most certainly 2. While this idea of “disciples indeed” IS rendered as Truly in many translations, the reality of the impact of this word IS missed by most who see the idea of disciple as student and learner yet today. It IS the True disciple who keeps His words and while we use this idea of True disciple to carry the thought of discipleship yet further into completeness, this IS but our own word usage that comes in the completeness of the Master’s use of the idea of discipleship at that level….a level which the Apostle Peter had NOT yet achieved before the Master’s death. It IS in keeping His words that we become His disciples and it IS in the completeness of our focus upon the things of God, in the completeness found in Jesus words saying “whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33) that we find the Perfected disciple, the fullness of the Presence of God and one’s attainment of His Kingdom.
It IS in the completeness of keeping His words that we have the fullness of these rewards: the fullness of the Presence of God in one’s Life, the fullness of True discipleship and the greater Truth of the Kingdom of God. It IS in these things that we are freed from our existance in Life here in this Earth, freed from the cycle of birth and death; it IS in these things that we ARE Truly “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” where we have the Truth of “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:21, 23). When we can see that ALL of these things ARE related and the same in their fullness, we can then see as well how that this works out in the Life of the man who strives toward that “strait gate” which opens into this fullness. It IS in striving toward the Kingdom that we strive toward His Presence and that we strive toward the reality of discipleship. And it IS by the measure of our striving that we receive or, better, that we have the realization of these things by the same and proportionate measure: the Presence of God, the reality of discipleship and the Truth of being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. It IS in keeping His words that we can, by measure, “know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Great Invocation |
In relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN |
Life |
|
Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
Heart of God |
Truth |
|
Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within |
Mind of God |
Way |
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
Repeating a Quote of the Day from the past that has some significance in relation to what we are discussing here, that the Kingdom of God and therefore God is within us ALL and that it IS His Presence which a man realizes by measure as he begins his journey to the Kingdom of God. Here Lord Tennyson poetically tells us just how close God Truly IS and how it is that we touch Him
Speak to Him, thou, for He hears,
and Spirit with Spirit can meet
Closer is He than breathing,
and nearer than hands and feet.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809–1892)
From the poem The Higher Pantheism which puts forth the authors spiritual belief. Whether we agree with him or not, the quote if spiritually perfect for all of Christianity as well as any other world religion.
The thought behind the idea above IS NOT unlike that which we have been carrying as our Quote of the Day for many essays; It IS in the closeness that Lord Tennyson shows us that we should see the idea that “God dwells in the inner part of every man” which we read in the previous Quote of the Day. For us this saying and the previous one show us the closeness of the spiritual self to the Father and then too the closeness of the spiritual self with the personality of man. Men may like to think of God as something outside and above but the reality, as we have seen in so many of the sayings of the Master, is that God is with us and in us and we need only to let ourselves be drawn and to focus upon Him. And, if we can use these words from the Gospel of Thomas here we can perhaps see much: “When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father“
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
